Press Play – Bulgaria

This short video is a result of a two week workshop carried out during EASA 2014 in Velitko Tarnovo Bulgaria. Participants formed three groups and were asked to derive a concept from “games & play”, propose an architectural intervention and construct a working prototype.

Prototype: A two player game, where each player knocks on a table to ‘push’ a light towards his opponent. The game ends when light reaches the base of either player.

Proposal: The architectural proposal was for a light intervention on an abandoned soviet bridge in the city of Velitko Tarnovo. Addressable light sections would flash in different sequences depending on how many people would touch the bridge’s railing. The aim is for visitors to compete for their own mark on the bridge crossing the Yantra River, an echo of the actions by Bulgaria’s past architects.

Group 2

Participants: Andrea Zerafa, James Dingli, Justin Coppini

Concept: Collaborative Play

Prototype: A small ball is placed on a fabric held at three points, with each point being able to move up or down based on the player’s distance from the game. The game ends when the fabric is no longer held flat and the ball falls off.

Proposal: A light-space modulator in an abandoned soviet engine room, at the Yantra River dam. The corroded mechanical components on site, are the carcasses of engineering projects from an era when technological development was at its peak in eastern Europe. The light space modulator provides visitors to interact with the space through shadow puppetry, generating new mechanical spaces and projected experiences.

Group 3

Participants: Kipras Kazlauskas, Morta Pilkaite

Concept: Zero Player Game

Prototype: A light following robot, based on the literature of Valentino Braitenberg – Vehicles (1986).

Proposal: The proposal was for the deployment of hundreds of small robots with very simple functions in the city of Velitko Tarnovo. Reference is drawn from the shear scale of the EASA event, and how 500 people affect the functioning of a city.

Interactive Architecture Lab

The Interactive Architecture Lab is a multi-disciplinary research group and Masters Programme at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. Interested in the Behaviour and Interaction of Things, Environments and their Inhabitants.